Wish You Were Here....

Did you ever get a postcard from someone when they were on a fabulous vacation that said, "Wish You Were Here..." with all kinds of gorgeous pictures? And you thought to yourself, "Yeah, I wish I were there too! So thanks for rubbing it in!" When I got those postcards, they were always from my parents or grandparents. They were the people that could have actually taken me....do you see the irony? Or maybe it's the condescension? Because if they really wished we were there, why didn't they just take me? I see the truth so clearly now...

I'm sorry to report that there will be no Fabulous Find Friday today, but I have a good excuse as to why....it's because I'm here....and I wish you were too....

So I'm going to go explore this gorgeous city with my hubby instead of sitting on the computer! I hope y'all have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week! XOXO

Have your Cake and Eat it Too!

As you all well know by now, I have a total sweet tooth. I love all things chocolate, covered in icing and/or ice cream. I've met very few sweet I don't like and generally the only thing I steer clear of is coconut. So you can imagine my delight when we decided on a dessert party to celebrate my mother-in-law's retirement!

The only stipulations were that we kept it a surprise and we brought sweets...done and done! All of the delicious desserts came from Walton's Fancy and Staple here in Austin. If you're ever in town you MUST give it a try! It's on 6th street, it has a floral shop in it, their pastry chef is a genius and their sandwiches and salads are wonderful too.

I digress...David and I hit town on Saturday and began our second family gathering. My sister-in-law came in from NYC and we had a great time cooking out and visiting. I had heard about a new store in New Braunfels called Gourmage and I was dying to try it! It didn't take much convincing to get Claudia and Kate to go with me! Gourmage has tons of wonderful cheeses and they will let you try anything you want. The owners are a husband and wife team and she is the cheese guru and he is the chocolatier. There are truffles, chocolate covered apricots, chocolate covered orange peels...the list goes on and on! We settled on a sun dried tomato and basil feta cheese and an apricot and ginger cheese...I can't remember the name if it for the life of me, but it was SO good. I think we ate and drank our weight in wine and cheese Saturday night!

Sunday it was all about the surprise and the desserts! I would like to point out that my mother-in-law is the only person on the planet that we could pull this over on. How in the world we were able to set up an entire surprise party in her own home and keep her out of her dining room is beyond me. But we did it nonetheless. She was so surprised when all of her friends came to celebrate with her and honor her. We all have a great time and everyone left with gorgeous and fabulous leftovers! Success!

The first peak at all of the goodies! Those pedifores on the left were topped with an orchid...just gorgeous!

The whole spread...and then close-ups below because they're worth it!

David's family...

The Buck convention going on in their backyard while we were taking pictures...This was right before Rookie took off after them and chased them away. He thinks he's so big and bad...

I wish I had been born rich instead of this good looking...

Long time no blog...sorry friends! As I told you, the King was here and we had a great time! We actually had a completely full and completely...well, complete family weekend. Not only did Taylor grace us with his presence for 72 whole hours, but my sister in law came in from NYC for my MIL's retirement party, so the gang really was all here.

Note on the title: my boss says this and it cracks me up. It makes me think of Taylor as it really is his cross to bear...pity! Ha! Him being the favorite child is our family joke....I digress...

I took off Friday so I could spend some time with my brother since we were planning a trip to my in-laws Saturday and Sunday for the retirement celebrations. We were treated to breakfast at Nana and Papa's, then we went out to the lake, got a little sun, made a few jokes at each other's expense and then were treated to a very nice dinner at III Forks at Big Daddy's expense! Thanks Big Daddy!

I'm all for red carpet treatment! Even if it is on Taylor's coat tails! ;) Here are a few pictures from family time with my family....And I'd like to point out that my mom figured out that her reading glasses had lights on them and my Nana is adorable and she's wearing a maxi dress with a chunky necklace...cutest.nana.ever.

The birthday boy...

The "kids"...

The girls...

The whole fam-damily...

Cute, cute...Kristen and Teeny

My mom did a post with more pictures here. I'll do another post about our time with Dave's family! So many pictures of my MIL's dessert party! Everything was gorgeous...and yummy!!

Hail, hail, the king is here!

Sorry for my lack of posting but the favorite child is in town! My brother is only in town for 2 days so I took the day off and were spending the day here....

I hope y'all have a great weekend!! I promise I'll be back on the blogging bandwagon next week! XOXO

PS...If you click on that "favorite child" link it will take you to one of my favorite posts...because it's SO true! :)

Life's essentials: Food & Water

Well, we've got that down! We had a great Memorial weekend and I hope that y'all did too! We pretty much ate our way through the weekend, but what's new? It seems like every time my family gets together our days revolve around our next meal. I would say I'm not proud, but that would be a bold faced lie.

The weekend started with Dave and I having everyone over for breakfast and ended with dinner in New Braunfels with Dave's mom and dad. I have many pictures documenting the weekend not one of which includes me. But rest assured, I was there. I consumed my fair share of homemade cinnamon rolls thanks to the Pioneer Woman, and lathered on a good amount of SPF 45 to enjoy opening weekend of pool/lake season! I am glad to say....welcome back summer! You've been missed!

Dave was my subject when I was trying to get my exposure right...

Kristen...already tan and we're just getting started!

Mom and Nana on their joy ride

Nana and Papa

Grill Master Dad

They were just as good as they were pretty!

The pool's open! Rookie makin' a splash...(pun intended....)

Miss Maggie...

Mr. Jake....

The Gyllenhaal's in action...

His future's so bright he's gotta wear shades...

I hope y'all had a wonderful Memorial weekend! Yes, we had a ton of fun and we enjoyed the unofficial kickoff to summer, but I am not lost on the purpose of Memorial weekend. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart to those who have fought and those who are fighting for not only our freedom, but the freedom of others. I couldn't stop the tears from flowing in our Sunday morning worship service as we honored those who have served and those who have lost their lives for country and freedom. Men and women young and old stood up as their branch of service hymn was played and I just cried thinking of the countless families who prayed and waited, hoping their loved ones would come home. For those of you who are currently praying and waiting for your loved one to come home I can only offer a simple "Thank you". Thank you for sacrificing and sharing your honorable soldier with us.

I think that patriotism is sadly a lost art. As I sat and looked at so many men of older generations stand and proudly sing their anthem, whether it was Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, etc, I started thinking that service was something they all knew and something most of them had done. There was no choice of the matter. Families celebrated their soldiers and pretty much every family was touched with service. It made me think that so many people today don't know that type of sacrifice...that type of patriotism. Myself included! My grandfather's served, but that was before I was born.

I consider myself patriotic and I love my country, I love the flag...I love my freedom, and I realize my freedom isn't free. I'm thankful for those who serve and I hope that we, as a country, never take for granted our armed forces and the job they do. So as I was able to enjoy my memorial weekend filled with food, water, fun and sun I know that many families mourned loved ones lost in battle. I pray that I never forget the true heroes and the true purpose of memorial weekend. Thank you never seems to be enough...

Typical.

And excerpt from our e-mail convo yesterday. Why must he toy with my emotions?
________________________________________
From: Tiffany
To: David

What in the world…. http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/05/24/texas-rangers-declare-bankruptcy-set-sell-team/?test=latestnews

Like, will they move out of Texas? Or will someone buy them and keep them where they are?

From: David
To: Tiffany

The plan is for them to move the team to Puerto Rico to broaden the MLB’s exposure to the Caribbean/Latin America.

From: Tiffany
To: David

No it is not. Are you being serious?

From: David
To: Tiffany

This sale has been in the works for quite a while. This is the sale that involves Nolan Ryan as becoming one of the new owners which sparked the rumor that the Express might become a Ranger affiliate.

From: Tiffany
To: David

I know about all that, but I never dreamed they would move out of Texas. Are you being serious that they would move to Puerto Rico??

From: David
To: Tiffany

Do you think Nolan Ryan wants to move to Puerto Rico? They aren’t going anywhere.

Obviously. Dave-1 Me-0

Down and DIRTY!

I spent about 16 of the 48 hours of my weekend completely filthy! I played in the dirt, trimmed trees, and loaded my fair share of mulch. I'm very happy that next weekend's to-do list calls for no yard work! :)

Saturday, we got up and headed up to the church. Our Young Adults Sunday School Class had a work day to serve one of the widowed and home bound women of our church. She had some planting and yard work she wanted done. It sounded like a simple task, but when we got there we noticed there was much more we could do to help her. I can't take any of the credit outside of a couple of newly planted hibiscus, but the guys really dug in and did some series yard work! At one point, the lady we were helping said, "Is someone on my roof??" Sure enough, someone was up on the roof with the leaf blower cleaning out all of her gutters! Next thing we knew we heard a chainsaw and the guys were literally cutting down a HUGE dead branch that was hanging over her house! I'm sure she didn't even know it was there because she is in a wheelchair and might not have even been over on that side of her house in quite a while! I offered to order pizza for the group if they wanted to move the party to our house, but alas, they turned down my offer. Boo!
Off we were to do it ourselves! We have a local recycling center where you can take and dump all of your brush for free. In turn, they mulch it and you can haul off mulch for free! We were really excited because we probably need 100 bags of mulch to do our entire yard...and no, I'm not kidding! It was a great idea in theory (and in reality, we just need a few days for our soreness to wear off and then we can appreciate the cost effectiveness) but we had to SHOVEL the mulch off of the pile and load it in the truck. Unloading and laying it was the easy part (again, I can't take any credit for laying the mulch...Dave did that. But in my defense I trimmed TONS of our trees and bushes!) it was shoveling the mulch that was the hard part. Dave was considering slipping the guy with the bobcat a $20 just to put a scoop full in the truck! ha.

Thank goodness we had this guy around to help when we needed it! Talk about lazy bones! He just walked around panting and terrorizing the neighborhood! I turned my head for about 30 seconds and looked up and he was gone....I heard my neighbor saying, "Rookie, come here!" HE WENT IN THEIR HOUSE! Ha! They had the garage door open and he walked right into their house through the garage! Iy-yi-yi!

If my mother-in-law read my blog, this is the part she would be most proud of! I love rosemary and basil, and I pay $3 every time I want fresh basil at the grocery store, so I decided to try my hand at growing my own! I bought the rosemary already started at Lowe's for $5, and then I just bought basil seeds. It says 5-7 days for them to start growing, so we'll see how it works out! Do any of you grow your own herbs? If so, share your tricks!

Finally, I have been wanting a flag outside! I just love driving around and seeing the American Flag flying! Just in time for Memorial Day and honoring all of the men and women who have served our country and lost their lives defending our freedom.

While we're at it, this has nothing to do with yard work and I didn't do this this weekend, but I did do it recently....this is a small wall in my living room and it has been so boring to me! I wanted to display some pictures because there is not a lot of room in our living room for anything "personal". I decided to do a picture wall. I debated on all matching frames, but in the end, I decided I wanted to pull in all of the colors in my living/dining room and have it be a little less "perfect". This is the end result...

Now I need a weekend to relax from my weekend! What did you do, relax or work??